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Category Archives: Music

This used to be my “theme song” for a while – it just sounded like me to me. But, I guess I’m a little more jaded now than this innocent romp, so I’ve made “Murkey” my new theme for the time being. What’s interesting about “Melsong” is that I had just gotten a new computer and could multi-track on it for the first time, but I hadn’t yet figured out how to monitor the previous tracks while I recorded the new ones. So, this whole piece was recorded “blind” – figured out in my head and recorded layer after layer with only a metronome track for guidance. There’s a few bobbles and drift here and there, but I’m actually surprised it blended together as well as it did!

Published this one under my “Tarnished Karma” moniker – a fictional band consisting of me. And yes, that’s me in the picture, and there’s a whole story behind that!

But as for the music, This is an original instrumental piece in memory of Princess Di. I wrote this during all her memorial services. At the time, I was pretty depressed (not a rare condition for me in those days, though I’m all better now!) and so I sat around in my pajamas for two days, recording one take after another until I got it laid down the way I wanted. I’ve always felt it could use some additional instrumentation, but I squeezed out all the interest I had in the piece during that marathon session, so this is all you get. Closest thing to true classical music I’ve ever written.

This one was intended to be a bit like some of the later Beatles stuff or maybe the “almost” bubble gum music McCartney started writing around his third Wings album. I like the rhythm change-ups in the middle of the song and also the George Harrison style riffs at the end of the first few bars, even though these are with synth rather than guitar. The style reminds me of something – I mean, “Something” – a song I used to play on the piano for my mom when I was in my early teens – it was her favorite Beatles song.

A nice little piano and drums instrumental piece. It has a laid-back band feel – sort of like what you might play after closing time when everyone else but the bartender has been booted out. Course, its just me on the synth doing multi-track, and I never had time to join a band, but anyway, that doesn’t mean I can’t get into the same groove from time to time.

This ethereal piece with synthesizer has an Asian mystic feel. I like the slow pace of it and the depth of the low notes, contrasted by the Asian style string lead that comes in during the second iteration. This one always reminds me a bit of the music of Vangelis – especially off the “China” album.

Haunting synthesizer piece and my current “theme song.” I don’t know, I just find this recording mesmerizing with its strange reflective melancholy yet uplifting combinations of sounds. This is a concept piece. It is made of three simple tracks – piano, bass woodwind, and strings. The design is intended to have the indistinct bass rise gradually in volume over the course of the entire recording until it eventually obscures the other two tracks, making the whole thing “muddy” and hence the title, “Murkey” as if recorded in a Murky Key.

I wrote this piece while my daughter’s father-in-law was on the verge of succumbing to a six month battle with a particularly virulent cancer. He was a kind and gentle man, always in good cheer, inclusive, and engaging. His troubles began when he was putting on his sock one day and his leg broke from the pressure. Turns out it was a tumor just below the knee. The first operation scooped it out, but didn’t get it all. A second operation attempted to stop internal bleeding at the site. A third operation took his leg at the hip because the cancer in it had become too painful to bear. A month later, it had spread throughout his system. He went into hospice treatment at home, fell into fearful deleirum for a couple of weeks and died last night, the day after I wrote this song. While I didn’t specifically create it for or about him, I know he was in my mind when I wrote it, and so I dedicate this one to him.